Hi Dilatedmind!
Your question is actually difficult. The Metal scene in Italy is not very flourishing.
We have
1. Very few great bands:
Rhapsody of Fire (epic/symphonic/neoclassical metal),
2. Some good bands, like
Elvenking (folk metal, quite good, but a little too "catchy")
Ancient Bards (epic metal)
Lacuna Coil (metal/rock)
3. A lot of "underground bands"
3a. Some of them are very good. For exemple "Ogen" (black metal).
3b. Most of them consider themselves great, incredible, the best metal band in Italy. In fact, they are technically quite good, but they are all pretty much the same. They have the same sound, the same style. They're not "original". Consequently they're neither interesting nor good.
So. You can see we're not very good at metal...
But this is just my opinion...